In recent years, with increasing emphasis on energy conservation, the recycling of used beverage containers and other similar commodities has become an important factor in the conservation effort. More specifically, the recycling of aluminum, glass and plastic containers has proven to be energy efficient, and environmentally beneficial.
In addition, numerous jurisdictions have enacted mandatory deposit laws which require deposits on all beverage containers. Such laws create additional problems for the grocery industry, and burdens for those tasked with collecting the containers, paying the refunds, and storing the returned commodities. A number of machines have been developed in the prior art for encouraging the recovery and recycling of beverage containers. For example, Applicant's assignee is the owner of U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,440,284; 4,573,641; 4,492,295; and 4,784,251. All of these patents relate to machines and systems for automated redemption of used beverage containers. While much progress has been made in the development of efficient systems for encouraging and effecting recycling of containers, a number of problems still remain in the prior art. In particular, in those areas where reverse vending machines are used to collect and store such containers, retail store operators typically must remove the crushed or densified commodities from the machine and store them for later pickup. This creates storage problems for the retailer and uses up otherwise valuable retail or storage space.
In addition, in some jurisdictions, retailers are obligated to accept returned containers. Thus, if a reverse vending machine is inoperable, repairs must be made rapidly in order to avoid disruption of the retailer's operation to manually sort and store containers.
Another problem experienced with prior art systems is the requirement for the retailer or other service agency to frequently add money to machines which pay deposit refunds or other monetary compensation for returned containers.
Accordingly it is an object of the present invention to efficiently collect, densify and store large quantities of post consumer recyclable commodities with a minimum of service requirements.
It is a further object of the present invention to reduce the burdens of maintaining adequate supplies of coins or currency in the collection stations of a commodity collection and storage system.
It is an additional object of the present invention to reduce the incidence of break-in of the collection stations of a commodity collection and storage system by utilizing an alternative to currency or coins.
A further object of the invention is to provide a commodity collection and storage system in which the collection stations can automatically indicate when repairs are needed to a central control facility.
Additional objects and advantages of the invention will be apparent from the description which follows, or may be learned by practice of the invention.